Thursday, January 7, 2010

Since we have been authoring this blog we have been continually amazed by the people that read what we have written. We started the blog in June 2008, to keep family and friends informed of what we're up to since we have the two residences, etc. Reading over the beginning entries is like reading a grade school primer, compared to what we are writing now - but it's still fun to look back and see what we have done with our time. One thing that has continually amazed us is the variety of people who come and read our little blog! We have two applets on this main page that will let us know where our readers are coming from, though not specifically "who". We know, for example, that if the FeedJit says "Big Rock, Illinois" - that's my sister, Maj. If it says Solon, Iowa - definitely nephew and niece Jeff and Sandy; Hawaii = our friend Andrew, etc. But we have also found that we are picking up readers from all over the world! We have a frequent reader from Austria (who we don't know!), as well as people from England, India, Asia; in fact we have had visitors from every continent except Antartica! Granted, when someone searches for "Valspar Paint" - one of the Google returns will be our blog (since I mentioned Valspar Paint in an entry). If someone searches for "Hyperstar Images" - they will find our blog as well. We always enjoy seeing what people have searched for - leading them to us! In fact, in yesterday's post Dean mentioned that he had time to "get in a quicky" (refering to a short walk); I laughed when I read that, telling him that when someone searches for "a quicky" they will find our blog - probably not what they're looking for. We have picked up followers from Asia, and from England - who we don't know, but who seem to enjoy our blog for various reasons. Technology has changed "our neighborhood" from the blocks surrounding our home into our entire world! While this may be 'scary' on some levels (makes you think about posting those colonoscopy pictures, again), we find it facinating and encouraging! If you have the time and the interest, take a few minutes and checkout our MapLoco in the side bar. It places a star from each place someone has come from (on a daily basis). Also, click on the "Watch in Real Time" at the bottom of the FeedJit applet at the bottom of the page. There you will find the list of who has been to our blog in the past 24 hours and what they were searching for. In the options category, under FeedJit, you will find "Live Traffic Map". Clicking on that will show you a map of the Earth, and flags indicating who has been reading our posts.

While most of our readers don't post comments to us (some do, and we welcome them!), we do know you're out there - and we pay attention to that! Thank you for reading our little journal, and keep doing so! We welcome your input and your friendship - where ever you may be from!

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Click on our names, above, to send us an email! FOR ADDED VIEWING PLEASURE -- click on the pictures in our daily posts to see an enlarged (and typically more detailed) picture!

Wow! You came all of the way from _______ to visit us?!!!

Credit where credit is due...

All photos are by Dean and Melinda Ketelsen - even the really cool astrophotography ones. Granted, some pics have come from the Internet...such as pictures of actors, or of Miss Tohono O'odham, etc. However, the astronomy pics, as well as the bird pics are all original - compliments of Dean, and sometimes Melinda too! Layout, editing, and continual tweaking (I think they call that "desk top publishing"), well, that would be the work of "I know I can make this better" Melinda!